Installed openSUSE-12.1 on 86-year old mother's PC

English Open Chat
1

I installed openSUSE-12.1 KDE on my 86-year old mother’s PC. Her previous version was 11.3 which is no longer under maintenance. She has been using GNU/Linux for years, so there was no radical change here. A previous thread on this subject (of GNU/Linux on her PC) here: http://forums.opensuse.org/english/other-forums/community-fun/general-chit-chat/444236-planning-os-update-my-84-year-old-mothers-pc.html

Before installing openSUSE-12.1 I did a complete backup of her /home to an external hard drive.

I had been concerned that her old Phillips webcam would not work with the openSUSE-12.1 kernel, but it turned out that was unfounded and that webcam still worked (albeit at a very low resolution only, much less than the webcam’s nominal 640x480 resolution). That did not matter as I replaced her old Phillips webcam with a newer Logitech C270 webcam (high definition) that works very nice. From lsusb:


Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:0825 Logitech, Inc. Webcam C270

Here is information on her PC:


System:    Host: mothercpu Kernel: 3.1.10-1.9-desktop x86_64 (64 bit) 
           Desktop KDE 4.7.2 Distro: openSUSE 12.1 (x86_64) VERSION = 12.1 CODENAME = Asparagus
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion P6000 Series
           Mobo: FOXCONN model: 2A92 version: 1.01 Bios: American Megatrends version: 6.09 date: 09/07/2010
CPU:       Quad core AMD Athlon II X4 630 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm) 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 2800.00 MHz 2: 2800.00 MHz 3: 800.00 MHz 4: 800.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: ATI RS880 [Radeon HD 4200] 
           X.Org: 1.10.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,radeonhd,vesa) Resolution: 1280x1024@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RS880 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 7.11
Audio:     Card-1: ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA ver: 1.0.24
           Card-2: Logitech Webcam C270 driver: USB Audio
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller driver: r8169 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 78:e7:d1:89:8e:6f
           Card-2: Ralink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe driver: rt2800pci 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 70:f1:a1:75:10:53
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 750.2GB (25.3% used) 1: /dev/sda ST3750528AS 750.2GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 20G used: 6.4G (34%) fs: rootfs ID: / size: 20G used: 6.4G (34%) fs: ext4 
           ID: /home size: 313G used: 126G (43%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 2.16GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 30.0C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 158 Uptime: 3:55 Memory: 665.1/3707.6MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.7.24

I tested the capability to control the PC remotely via x11vnc (tightvnc) piping through ssh and that worked well (I did this from my sister’s house to my mother’s apartment as a test). This is important as I maintain her PC in Canada remotely from Germany.

My mother dislikes intensely on openSUSE-12.1 having to enter her password each time the PC boots for her wireless (the wireless is a backup for her wired). Looks like Linus has company there. So that was one downside of this 12.1 installation.

I struggled a bit disabling Nepomuk and Akonadi, but I think I succeeded in the end.

Her printer/scanner works fine. So does her multimedia. As does internet

There are two things that I have not yet succeeded with on GNU/Linux:

  • when firefox prints, often black-and-white text will not print, but coloured text will print (from web pages, and also from some other PDF apps such as occular). But if I print 1st to a PDF file, and then print the PDF file from acroread then the text will print. My mother’s effective work around here is to run her WinXP virtual box session (client under the openSUSE server) and print from firefox in WinXP which works fine (and hence no need for an intermediary print to file) ! Go figure.
  • if I shut down or restart via the KDE menu shutdown, the PC will then close X but have a diaglog box where one again needs to select shut down or restart. The problem with this is when I use x11vnc to maintain her desktop, I can not shut down this way as I am kicked off of X (remote connection) prior to this last dialog box. Now I can shut down/restart via konsole with ‘shutdown -r now’ or ‘shutdown -h now’ but if I shut down that way then any changes to the KDE desktop are not saved. Hence if I need to update her desktop, then she will need to do the shut down locally and not me remotely

Still, I can live with those hiccups if need be.

I also briefly tried to get her win7 (in a separate boot partition) running again with AHCI (as opposed to RAID) but I failed. The AHCI driver was not included by HP on this implementation of a Pavilion P6000 (go figure) and win7 only works the RAID. openSUSE only works with the AHCI so that means I left win7 disabled. My mother does not need win7 anyway, but its annoying to have not succeeded here (its an ego thing on my part).

Her PC’s current grub/mbr positioning:


Find Grub Version 3.8 - Written for openSUSE Forums

 - reading MBR on disk /dev/sda                       ... --> SUSE Generic MBR (Sig: 0xaf7eba6e)
 - searching partition /dev/sda1   *  (NTFS)          ... --> Windows7/Vista Loader found in /dev/sda1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can add the following entry to /boot/grub/menu.lst :

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: WindowsBootLoader###
title Windows on /dev/sda1
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 - searching partition /dev/sda2      (NTFS)          ... --> Windows7/Vista Loader found in /dev/sda2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can add the following entry to /boot/grub/menu.lst :

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: WindowsBootLoader###
title Windows on /dev/sda2
    rootnoverify (hd0,1)
    chainloader +1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 - searching partition /dev/sda3      (NTFS)          ... --> Windows7/Vista Loader found in /dev/sda3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can add the following entry to /boot/grub/menu.lst :

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: WindowsBootLoader###
title Windows on /dev/sda3
    rootnoverify (hd0,2)
    chainloader +1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 - reading bootsector  /dev/sda4   *  (Extended)      ... --> Legacy GRUB  found in /dev/sda4   => sda6   0x83 (openSUSE)
 - skipping partition  /dev/sda5      (swap)         
 - reading bootsector  /dev/sda6      (LINUX)         ...
 - reading bootsector  /dev/sda7      (LINUX)         ...


Press <enter> to Exit findgrub..

and her hard drive partitioning:


Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xba6eaf7e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848   729580288   364686720+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3      1440660225  1465144064    12241920    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4   *   729581568  1440659455   355538944    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5       729583616   733800447     2108416   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6       733802496   775747583    20972544   83  Linux
/dev/sda7       775749632  1440659455   332454912   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Having two partitions (sda1 and sda4) marked as ‘boot’ by fdisk is surprising to me, but this works and I am not going to mess with ‘what works’.

Maybe next year I’ll ‘blow away’ her win7 partitions.

My long range plan is sometime toward the end of next year I’ll update the PC to openSUSE-12.3 or 13.1 (which ever is the current released version at that time).

2

Hi
In gnome I just edit the connection and allow for all users, enter the
root password once and never revisit. Can’t this be done with KDE4
network manager?

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 3.0.31-0.9-default
up 13:36, 3 users, load average: 0.24, 0.25, 0.30
CPU Intel i5 CPU M520@2.40GHz | Intel Arrandale GPU

3

Lee
Must be system connection
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/SUSE%20Misc/kde-wireless-new.png

4

As others have suggested, make it a system connection and set it to automatically connect. Thereafter it should not be asking for the root password.

Alternatively, you could try the changes that I have been testing, and that are shown here: Trying to make NetworkManager sane in 12.2

5

Thanks that worked, although the 1st time I rebooted her pc immediately after applying that setting I had a major fright …

It gave me this screen …
http://thumbnails18.imagebam.com/19611/a0ee1c196108713.jpg](ImageBam)

asking for a root login. I logged in as root, typed ‘shutdown -r now’ to reboot, and from then on everything was fine. I assume that was a co-incidence, and what ever problem I encountered during that reboot was not related. … Rather bizarre thou - as I can not reproduce that one time strange login screen.

6

Further to the above quoted observation here is what is observed on her PC locally when I remotely with vnc (via KDE) instruct it to reboot:
http://thumbnails60.imagebam.com/19611/9780a8196108926.jpg](ImageBam)

at this point the vnc remote connection has been broken and I do not see this remotely. I can still ssh into her PC and force a reboot, but again I suspect any desktop settings will not have been saved. I’ve never observed this behaviour in previous GNU/Linux vnc testing.

Note if from KDE she elects to reboot directly, this second confirmation box does not occur. So it appears to be related to a vnc shutdown of KDE.

7

Another minor KDE specific hiccup, that I have not seen before, is some of the folders on her KDE desktop, upon KDE booting, do not have coloured icons. Instead, after one passes the cursor over the icons the colour will fill in.

Here is what I mean, with a couple of folders immediately after KDE booting:
http://thumbnails45.imagebam.com/19611/e2ad81196109202.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/e2ad81196109202)

and this is what it looks like AFTER I have passed the mouse cursor over the icons:
http://thumbnails72.imagebam.com/19611/e62a3d196109197.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/e62a3d196109197)

What is even more strange is I have another folder on her desktop with identical settings ( but different icons and apps linked to icons) and that folder does not have this problem. Yet folder settings are the same.

8

I understand (that you don’t want to mess with ‘what works’). What I don’t understand is why and how that works. If two partitions (sda1 and sda4) have the bootflag, how come the generic MBR passes control to sda4? It wouldn’t matter if you had Grub in MBR, since boot flags are irrelevant in this case (you could have all partitions active or none). But the generic MBR loads the boot code in the boot sector of the active partition. I’m not aware that it would try the next active partition on a single device - like it would try the active partition of the next hard disk, for example. And even if it would, the Windows partition (sda1) probably still has a valid boot code. So why would the generic MBR pick sda4? :\

9

It wouldn’t matter if you had Grub in MBR
Are we sure it isn’t?

10

I don’t understand it either why it works. My view is the same as yours.

11

Yes. Looking at findgrub’s output @oldcpu posted here, I am sure.

I really would like to know why it works, because it apparently doesn’t make sense. … Would SUSE generic MBR have such a feature to give the precedence to the extended partition in case there are more than one active partition? I don’t know. Nothing is impossible. I feel hard to believe that it would check the boot code of each partition in 440 bytes of code. There must be an explanation, but I don’t have any. I wonder if it would work with Windows generic MBR (???). One woud assume that “normally” such a computer would either not boot at all or boot the first active partition. But I’m not an expert in generic MBR. In fact, I would never use it to boot Linux … except for “findgrubing” purpose.

12

I’m thinking even thou it ‘just works’ now, I am taking a risk that the configuration may not be stable. I have both a gparted liveCD and a parted-magic liveCD with me (plus an openSUSE KDE liveCD). I think tomorrow I may boot to the parted-magic liveCD, run gparted, and remove the flag next to sda1 and leave only the sda4 partition flagged as boot.

I believe that would be more ‘safe’ , especially given in 3 days I am flying across an ocean, back to the continent where I nominally live. I dislike the idea of doing things like changing partitioning flags when I am a continent away. Hence I’ll remove the sda1 boot flag, and reboot, and confirm things run nominally.

13

You definitely don’t need to boot a live system to set or unset bootflags. You can use fdisk to toggle the bootflag on sda1:

# fdisk /dev/sda
Command (m for help): **a**
Partition number (1-7): **1**
Command (m for help): **p**
Command (m for help): ****w

sfdisk provides a better method:

# sfdisk /dev/sda -A4

sfdisk removes the bootflag from all other partitions, unlike fdisk which just toggle the bootflag on a single partition. Therefore users should be encouraged to use sfdisk and not fdisk!

To set the bootflag on the Grub partition, you can also use

# findgrub -a

or

# updategrub -a

But it will only work if only one partition is active (it would execute sfdisk /dev/sda -A4 in this case.)

  • and it only works if Grub stage1 is installed in a primary (or the extended) partition - obviously - and only on the first hard disk (if I correctly remember what I did).
14

And it doesn’t explain what set the bootflag on a primary partition (the extended one is a primary) without removing it from another primary. Whatever did that has a bug. A user could achieve this result by using the fdisk command ‘a’ only once. In fact, when you use fdisk, you have to toggle the bootflag on 2 partitions. Otherwise you end up with two active partitions. Using sfdisk is a lot safer.

15

On 2012-06-13 19:06, oldcpu wrote:

> - if I shut down or restart via the KDE menu shutdown, the PC will
> then close X but have a diaglog box where one again needs to select
> shut down or restart. The problem with this is when I use x11vnc to
> maintain her desktop, I can not shut down this way as I am kicked off
> of X (remote connection) prior to this last dialog box. Now I can
> shut down/restart via konsole with ‘shutdown -r now’ or ‘shutdown -h
> now’ but if I shut down that way then any changes to the KDE desktop
> are not saved. Hence if I need to update her desktop, then she will
> need to do the shut down locally and not me remotely

No, you simply open a text, ssh connection and reboot from there. And
before that you close the kde session. The problem would be then entering
the graphics session again, unless you have autologin enabled.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

16

To better illustrate the above quote, the image below illustrates what I get when I print from firefox, chrome, konqueror, or even print to a PDF and print the PDF from okular :
http://thumbnails72.imagebam.com/19625/8097ea196245203.jpg](ImageBam)

and the image below illustrates what I should get, and I do get the text when I print to a PDF and then print the PDF from acroread:
http://thumbnails39.imagebam.com/19625/0086bf196245207.jpg](ImageBam)

… it makes me think this could be KDE4 related as opposed to ‘firefox’ related (since apps other than firefox also have this problem).

17

@oldcpu,
I thought you were using Nomachine NX or FreeNX at some point to remotely log in to your mother’s computer.

18

I removed the /dev/sda1 boot flag, and the PC still starts ok :slight_smile: … Here is the latest fdisk:


Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xba6eaf7e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848   729580288   364686720+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3      1440660225  1465144064    12241920    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4   *   729581568  1440659455   355538944    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5       729583616   733800447     2108416   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6       733802496   775747583    20972544   83  Linux
/dev/sda7       775749632  1440659455   332454912   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
19

Thanks for reminding me. I should install ‘nomachine nx’ on my mother’s PC before I leave for Europe in 3 days.

Previous, on openSUSE-11.3, I would normally access my mother’s PC via ‘vnc’, and only occasionally access via ‘ssh’ and/or ‘nx’ when those apps offered a capability that ‘vnc’ did not do so well. The reason was my mother liked to have visibility into what I was doing (which she has via ‘vnc’) , and I also liked her to be able to watch what I was doing (as she could learn off of this).

I always pipe ‘vnc’ via ‘ssh’ so it is secure.

But I’ll put ‘nx’ on her PC today as it is good to have multiple ways to access her PC.

20

I would be afraid to lock myself with nomachine (free edition) because it is limited to one client at a time. It actually already happened to me. I usually install both (it’s a little bit tricky), each listening to a different ssh port, with FreeNX forwarding incoming client connections on nomachine’s port to nomachine server. They also don’t operate the same way. When opening a xdm session with nomachine, xdm (kdm, gdm, etc) has to be running. Thus X needs to be running. Whit FreeNX, an X client doesn’t need to be running on the server. With nomachine, you get the xdm (kdm,gdm) login screen, where you can select which desktop session to start. With FreeNX, you get directly in the default desktop. I never open Gnome or KDE sessions directly, which is possible to.